Thoughts on Spore

[IDIC]

Well, at long last Spore is... almost here. It is released in the United States tomorrow (the 7th) and it was released in Europe on the 5th. I know that there are a number of Europeans on the board, so I was wondering how the game is?

Most of the reviews I have seen have been favorable.

 

[Cutter John]

You know for such a major release I'm surprised there hasn't been more hype for the game. I don't think I've seen a single banner ad of tv commercial.

I've been looking forward to this thing for months, but a couple of negative comments I've read have me a bit worried.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=464896&page=5

 

[IDIC]

You know for such a major release I'm surprised there hasn't been more hype for the game. I don't think I've seen a single banner ad of tv commercial.

I've been looking forward to this thing for months, but a couple of negative comments I've read have me a bit worried.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=464896&page=5

I am not sure how to take those reviews. One person was complaining that it was a sandbox game. Well, duh. I think it will be like the Sims in that you get out of it what you put into it i.e. it requires your imagination to be fun. The civilization and space stage is what I am really looking forward to.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

So far I'm up to the technological stage, and to be honest, I preferred it when it was cell and pack to tribe and civilisation. It's enjoyable enough, but it just goes from being something slightly different and interesting, to being just another simplified god sim. Or at least that's how it seems at the minute.

 

[Arrqh]

From most of what I've read from reviews and forum posts (mostly on GAF), the game doesn't really start until the space phase... you can get through all the other stages in a few hours if you have the motivation and they really amount to training for the space phase.

Largely the people who I've seen that are disappointed by it either had unrealistic expectations (they were expecting a complicated, hardcore sim when the game is obviously targetted to appeal to the casual market as The Sims did) or they aren't into sandbox/exploration games. So I'm still looking forward to playing it.

Also, someone found this

 

[Bob The Skutter]

That could be true, I'm not especially in to sandbox games, so that could be part of my problem with it. I'm finding it ok, just not great.

 

[Cutter John]

I dunno, I guess I'm a bit dissapointed about minor things like not getting bonus's for how you design your creature (dexterity or speed bonus for having more limbs,etc. ) and that there isn't a bit more strategy involved in the early stages of survival. Although to be fair, I'd hate to end up with another Civ type game, where the AI cheats like a mofo. I am looking forward to designing their civilization though.

I'll still probably pick it up on Monday.

 

[Arrqh]

Here's a good writeup on Spore and people's perceptions of the game...

But the game fundamentally changes when you reach the Space stage - it’s the one part of the game which is absolutely on par with any other game of its type - which is pretty much Space Rangers and sod all else in recent years (Comparisons to a game like Galactic Civilizations are deeply misplaced - you may as well say that Mount & Blade doesn’t stack up against Age of Wonders). It has a mass of mechanics - many of them introduced in the previous four hours, in a subtle and elegant way - and is a real, proper game, a pop-cute Elite with terraforming.

In other words, when you stop thinking about the early stages as the real game and something more akin to a character creator, you start having a lot more affection for them. The Cell and Creature levels are the most entertaining of the two (And the cell level, funnily enough, is the one where your creature design skills most actually impacts the game, in terms of you working out where to put your spikes to maximise your killing machine, and where the economics of what to buy next with limited resources bites hardest). The tribe is pretty vacuous, and the one I’m terribly glad doesn’t go on any longer. The World stage is a little more interesting, but carries a relatively heavy weight of demanding you to design most of the buildings and vehicles, which can make it seem to drag a little.

 

[-Brett-]

^ I think designing the buildings and vehicles is a big part of the fun, actually.

Still, I don't think it's fair to say that the game demands you do it. There's a gigantic selection of stuff that ships with the game, and an even bigger selection at the site. Just grab one you like and put it in that role.